Splash Damage's Brink is a multiplayer game. This cannot be stressed enough. It might sound obvious; it's an objective-based team game after all. And even though there's a plot and a Campaign mode – a stalwart single player institution – it's important not to mistake Brink for a game that is fun to play alone. It can be played alone, make no mistake; there are AI-controlled bots that fill the roles of absent players, and one can take on a rival team alongside these bots, but it's not the point of the game. And honestly, it's not particularly fun. If you're not interested in playing with other people then it's best to stop here. Brink wasn't designed for you.

Following on from Splash Damage's work on various multiplayer maps and the massively popular Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (and the less-popular Enemy Territory: Quake Wars), it's no surprise that Brink is a title centred around team play with other people. The game sees two teams of 8 battling across a variety of objectives, in a series of 16 levels made up of 2 campaigns: Security and Resistance. Each level has a series of missions to complete, from hacking terminals and disabling security bots to guarding doors and stealing vital info from under the other team's nose.

In order to complete these objectives, players adopt one of four character classes; Soldier, Engineer, Medic or Operative. Soldiers are able to plant explosives, can hurl molotov cocktails and buff other players' ammo. Engineers can increase weapon damage, build and repair barricades and whatnot, and construct defenses such as turrets and minefields. Medics can provide health boosts, heal, and revive team mates. Operatives can disguise themselves as a member of the enemy team and hack electronics. Each of the classes has more to discover, abilities that are purchased via tokens earned by leveling up, and the sheer scope of abilities is offset by the fact the tokens are sparsely distributed (especially at later levels) meaning that there are numerous different ways to tailor a character to your playing style. Missions can be tackled on and offline in Campaign mode, or played with differing and custom rulesets in Freeplay.

The application of these classes comes in a number of flavours. Some objectives will require an engineer, but the team also needs Soldiers, Medics and Operatives to provide support. Every class has a primary objective they're best suited for, but taking in an entire team of 8 Engineers for a Repair objective will never work. The game is designed to require teamwork, a well balanced team, communicative play. Of course, voice communication comes in massively handy in Brink, as it's a game that really requires you to work together, but the game does a good job of telling you what needs to be done as well. Accessing a Command Post allows you not only to change your class mid-game without requiring a respawn, but also tells you how many other instances of that class are currently on your team. If a primary objective requires a Soldier, but the radial wheel shows that there are already, for example, 4 Soldiers in the field, then taking on one of the other roles may be a good bet. It's a simple, effective system which is perhaps overcomplicated in explanation, and far more intuitive in-game. Numerous aspects of Brink appear more convoluted on paper than they are in practise.

The Objective Wheel, another radial menu that can be brought up at any time, is used to display objectives. The wheel presents missions based on the class you're playing as, with primary goals displayed in yellow and secondary in blue. It's a simple, effective way to let your team know what you're going for, as well as offering the ability for a support class such as Medic to set themselves as a general healer, rushing around being alerted to any ally who falls in battle and requires a revive.

Then there's the SMART system. Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain is a fancy way of saying 'you can do parkour and stuff'. It is impressive though, albeit something which, at first, feels like a bit of a fuss over nothing. It's not until you really get to grips with the system, and learn the maps a bit, that you can begin to pull off some daring escapes or mad dashes to revive team mates. Certain objectives, usually the ones in which you have to transport a document/code/vial of mysterious vaccine, can be a bit of an annoyance until you've grasped the nuances of SMART. Once you have, however, ducking and weaving past enemy turrets and sprinting to the comforting tracer fire of team mates becomes a breeze.

The SMART System is affected by body type. Initially only presented with the Medium type, Brink soon offers up Light and Heavy. Light characters are far more manouverable, hindered only by a lack of health and a restriction on the type of weapon they can carry. Heavy characters are unable to do much in the way of acrobatics but withstand a truckload more damage and can carry devastating gattling guns and other heavy weapons. As well as body type, Brink's character customisation offers up a whole host of tattoos, scars, clothing, hats, hairstyles and masks. The characters themselves are an ugly bunch, all gangly limbs and grotesque, Spitting Image-style facial features, comical caricatures which are bizarrely at odds with the game's super-serious (yet entirely disposable) plot.

While the characters may be meticulously modeled, the environments are a more hit-and-miss affair. Pop-up is rife on the 360 version, a problem rectified considerably by installing the game, but still fairly noticeable. Some poor texture work and a slightly rough edge can occasionally make the game a little unpleasant to look at, and while it's easy to overlook after a few minutes' play the visuals are initially quite jarring; it's definitely not a great-looking game, even if the multi-layered, varied maps boast an impressive art style showing off locations that range from grimy construction yards to indoor aquarium restaurants.

Also disappointing is the lack of in-game lobbies. Playing with randoms is obviously fine, and playing in full XBL parties, even post-US release, has never really led to any connection problems but the inability to team up in-game before diving into a match is a massive oversight. Friends have to either be invited once you've entered a game, or join through the Friends list, and when the intention is to play matches together it's a needless, annoying barrier that sets Brink slightly behind its rivals.

So too is the occasional spikes of lag. When the game works perfectly it's a fantastic, seamless example of team-based play, a thrilling co-operative experience which is, at times, unrivaled. But when lag hits, which is too often to ignore entirely, it's a war of attrition as you wait for your character to stop teleporting into walls or refusing to lock onto targets. It's far from a constant issue on 360, and one which is easily fixed, but it's an annoyance nonetheless and one which holds Brink back from being as good as it deserves to be.

As a more thoughtful alternative to other multiplayer FPSes on the market, Brink really shines. It's a game about teamwork in which teamwork is massively rewarded. There's no competing to nab XP; it's divvied up fairly, rewarded for pretty much every meaningful in-game action. Nobody has an advantage. The level cap may be relatively low; 20 levels which you can feasibly obtain within a week or so, but the fun comes from leveling multiple characters, customising different loadouts, trying out the vast array of weapons and unlocking weapon attachments via the short but enjoyable Challenge Mode, which tasks you and up to three other players with completing a series of different set challenges.

There's plenty to do in Brink, then, as long as you're not doing it by yourself. If you can look past the occasionally rough exterior, and the inexplicable absence of lobbies, there's a truly exciting, compelling multiplayer experience to be found here. Playing Brink is the easiest way to love Brink. It's not so much a rival to certain other FPSes as it is an alternative; balancing fast movement with lengthy, multi-layered missions. If Brink grabs you, it'll grab you hard. Even though the lack of polish is at times a disappointment, beneath the occasional annoyance is a fantastic and refreshing shooter that offers something different to the norm. It's standing on the precipice of true brilliance, and one can only hope that in time Splash Damage is able to push it over the edge.